Both Damien and Kent looked at me in shock. It wasn’t that I never cursed, far from it. I had the worst language of the three of us. It was just that I wasn’t playing around. If they expected some kind of stale business meeting, they were mistaken. They needed to confess so we could put all this bullshit behind us.
They knew immediately what I was talking about and thankfully didn’t waste any time denying it. I watched as first one man, then the other began to speak. Damien played the peacemaker and yielded the floor to Kent.
“It’s the new intern,” he explained. “I’m the one who suggested that she apply. I met her at a party, and I think I should get first dibs.”
“Why are you talking dibs?” Damien stood up, bringing himself level with the rest of us. “She’s my ex-girlfriend. I asked you both about it before I hired her.”
“I didn’t know that was the girl you were talking about,” Kent snapped.
“Easy,” I said.
“I didn’t know you met her at a party,” Damien countered. “How was I supposed to know you had your sights set on my prize?”
“You both know that if we had an HR department, you would be in violation of at least a dozen regulations,” I remarked.
“Good thing we don’t have an HR,” Kent said.
“That’s not really the point,” I mustered.
“Damien can’t go around hiring people just because he wants to bone them,” Kent snarled.
“That’s not why I hired her,” Damien objected.
“That’s the way it looks,” Kent claimed.
“You’re the one who wants to bone her,” Damien said.
“Hey!” I snapped. I could feel a headache coming on. I wasn’t the senior partner or even the most likeable of the three of us, but I felt an obligation to be the voice of reason. “Get it together. Figure this shit out. We have work to do.”
I turned around and stormed out of the conference room, leaving the two of them to duke it out in private.